Final Ideas

Why are there no options in the final three ideas in which elementary schools start and end earlier?

The advisory committee members did come up with five different ideas in which the elementary schools started and ended earlier. When they scored all 32 plans according to the Board’s criteria, they rated these five plans much lower overall, so they did not rise to the top to be included in the final three.

Why are there no options in which high schools start and end the latest?

Although the Sleep and Start Times Research Work Group found evidence in the research that teenagers have some better health and safety outcomes when they sleep later, the work group also found evidence that a start time after 8:15 a.m. for high schools led to negative effects for both academic and extra-curricular programs for many students. Members of the Start Times Advisory Committee talked about trying to balance these factors when they were scoring ideas based on this criterion.

Bus Driver Shortage

Why is the bus driver shortage a problem in Park Hill?

Districts
across the country are struggling to hire enough bus drivers, because so many
professional drivers with commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) are going to work
for companies like Amazon. In Park Hill, not being able to hire enough
experienced bus drivers means that we have more inexperienced, substitute
drivers on our routes, and the people who would normally be helping with
customer service calls have to fill in as substitute drivers.

Because we
currently have a two-tier framework, bus drivers have split shifts and do not
get enough hours to qualify for benefits. Because of the lack of hours, lack of
benefits and high expectations for student supervision and safety, there is
high turnover among school bus drivers. The Kansas City area projects it will
need another 3,000 drivers with CDLs for all driving needs in the next three
years.

What other solutions has the district tried to address the bus driver shortage?

We tried
offering job-sharing to allow bus drivers to also be district employees to earn
benefits. We also agreed to increases in driver salary schedules to help with
recruitment and retention. We used our district communication tools to help
with recruiting drivers. We built standards into our contract about staffing,
so First Student has incentives to be fully staffed. First Student has used
drivers from other First Student locations when necessary.

Unfortunately, paying more money does not solve problem
of not having enough drivers for all the jobs in our region. We already
increased driver pay, but continuing to increase causes other districts to
adjust, making us no more competitive.

The bus driver shortage is a nationwide problem
that is an issue for districts that run their own bus services as well as those
who contract with transportation providers, like we do with First Student. We
competitively bid our transportation contract, and we include strict standards
and expectations in that contract.

Park Hill is in the last year of a five-year
contract with First Student, which stores its buses in a lot that it owns at 9
Highway and 45 Highway. This fall, we will request proposals from all
interested transportation providers for a new contract that would start in fall
2020. We think that, because we are currently building our new transportation
center, we will get a more competitive set of responses from companies that do
not own a bus barn in Park Hill.

No, we have no current plans to purchase buses or run our own bus system. We are building our own transportation center, which should allow the district to get more competitive bids from transportation providers that do not own their own bus lots in our district, the way First Student does.

What did the Sleep and Start Times Research Work Group find out about the sleep research?

The work
group looked at several meta-analyses of many research studies, including this
one from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (External link). The group
listed several findings from its review of the data:

Elementary
student sleep time and related outcomes do not appear to be affected much by
different start times.

Teens
have different circadian rhythms than younger children or adults. As a result,
it is difficult for them to fall asleep early and wake up early.

Most
teens are not getting the recommended amount of sleep.

There
are significant limitations in the research regarding sleep and start times.

For
teens, later start times are associated with longer total sleep time.

Some
evidence shows moving high school and middle school start times later may
result in:

Some
reduction in student sleepiness

Some
reduction in morning automobile accidents involving students

Some
reduction in truancy

Some
reduction in symptoms of depression

Results
are inconclusive for outcomes related to academic achievement.

Impact on Families

What did the Sleep and Start Times Research Work Group find out about how a change in start times could impact students, families and schools?

In addition
to the review of the sleep research, the work group also found evidence of how
potential changes in start times might impact students, families and schools.

In
many scenarios, families’ child care needs would likely change.

For
elementary and middle school students, very early start times would mean bus
riders and walkers would be outside in the dark and in colder temperatures.

Later
start times would mean elementary and middle school students who live at the
end of bus routes might be dropped off after 5 p.m. Other impacts for students
in these grade levels with later start times include limiting after-school
activities and preventing bus riders waiting in the dark in the mornings.

Later
start times would result in students involved in after-school activities
getting home after dark during daylight savings time.

Later
start times would result in limited after-school activities.

Later
start times would result in bus routes running during afternoon rush hour.

For
high-school students with later start times, impacts include . . .

Student-athletes
and coaches in many sports would miss additional class time to attend sporting
events scheduled outside the traditional class schedule.

Student
access to outside community activities like dance or athletics would decrease.

Lights
would need to be installed on practice and playing fields.

Student
access to Professional Studies opportunities would be limited.

Students
who rely on individual transportation services would not be able to use taxis
after 5 p.m.

Facility
access for community practices and activities would be reduced.

Some
high school practices and activities could occur before school.

More than
1,000 families and almost 400 staff members filled out a survey for the work
group.

Results
of surveys indicate both staff and families highly value increasing adolescent
sleep, and a slight majority of both groups favor changing high school start
times to later in the morning.

Differences
in survey responses were much greater for socioeconomic status and ethnicity
than for grade span.

Families of students
who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch were more likely to express concern about their students being at bus stops in the dark.

Adventure
Club will still offer the same opening and closing times, even when it adjusts
to the new start times. Rates will also remain the same.

We are trying
our best to recruit more staff for Adventure Club. We have waiting lists
because it is difficult to recruit people for these part-time positions, but we
usually clear the waiting lists by mid-fall. Many of our staff members in this
area are college students.

Because
the times that faculty members report to work will need to change when start
times change, we will update the employee handbooks with the new schedules once
the Board selects the new start times. According to article 31 of the
negotiated agreement, teachers work seven hours and 40 minutes a day, and the
start times would not change this.

Bus Routes

Why does a multi-tier framework for bus routes need less drivers than a two-tier framework, like we currently have?

With more tiers of different start times, the
same buses and drivers, once they drop off a group of students at one school,
then have time to pick up and drop off more rounds of students for more
schools.

An
experienced First Student employee uses routing software to create routes, based
on safety, bus capacity and limits for the route times. We consolidate routes
to meet our targets for the bus loads and time on the buses. We are only
able to grant requests for changes if they meet our safety and efficiency
requirements. In addition, we cannot continually change bus stops throughout
the year, because it reduces safety.

The first
rider in the morning and the last rider in the evening must have a ride of less
than 45 minutes, according to our contract with First Student. As to likely
times, it could be anything from three minutes to the maximum of 45. There is a
great deal of variance, so this will be different for everyone.

Cost of Transportation

Do we get state funding to transport every student?

State law
requires us to provide service to everyone that lives more than three miles
from school, and the state reimburses us for transporting anyone who lives more
than a mile away. Thanks to a recent law, we can also be reimbursed for
students who live closer for whom we have safety concerns about their walking
route. In Park Hill, where there are a lack of safe walking routes, we offer
transportation to all students free of charge.

Over the last
couple decades, costs for transportation increased sharply and Park Hill’s
rising enrollment increased our transportation needs. During the same time, the
state funding for transportation dropped and then stayed low.

In 2017-2018,
we spent $7.68 million on student transportation, and $4.65 million of that was
for daily routes.

A regular
education single route costs $271.72 per morning or afternoon route, each day.
This means a bus leaving the bus barn, picking up students, delivering them to
school and returning to the bus barn each morning and afternoon.

A double
route costs $299.23 per morning or afternoon route, each day. This means a bus
leaving the bus barn, picking up students, delivering them to school, picking
up a second load of students, delivering them to school, and then returning to
the bus barn each morning and afternoon. This requires 98 routes.

We estimate that a
triple route this year would cost $329.45 per morning or afternoon route, each
day. This means a bus leaving the bus barn, picking up students, delivering
them to school, picking up a second load of students, delivering them to
school, picking up a third load of students, delivering them to school, and
then returning to the bus barn each morning and afternoon.

Our current
cost for regular routes is $5,861,386, including $641,618 for shuttles. Using
this year’s numbers, a three-tier model would cost $4,332,112, including
$168,523 for shuttles. This would save $1,529,274.